First Impressions / Tales of Zestiria the X

「風の天族デシル」 (Kaze no ten-zoku deshiru)
“Dezel the Wind Seraph”

For an episode devoted to Dezel, there sure wasn’t much Dezel present was there? Zestiria largely continues the buildup this week as the fallout from Rose’s late night excursion reaches the rest of the community and Rolance receives its first true taste of Malevolence. Slow or not, this episode does expand on the theme of moral greyness touched on previously by having Sergei and Rose display some complex character personalities. Sergei of course has revealed himself to be an honourable man with a not so subtle interest in Rose—that’s a little much for an apology I think. For an arguable side character this is nice as it provides some non-Malevolence friction in Sorey’s travels—besides the additional opportunity for further exposition—without coming across as forced. The surprisingly intriguing internal politics of Rolance helps in this regard as it gives a specific reason for Sergei’s prior behaviour towards Sorey. People will naturally doubt what they cannot see nor understand, especially those forces which have the capacity to upset pre-existing balances of power. Through Sergei, Sorey has a good opportunity to show how he can change more dubious hearts and minds going forward.

What I particularly liked here, however, was Rose’s personal struggle which offered a good reflection on her actions last week. It’s particularly fitting Rose’s mental anguish is born from the loss of her close friend Guren, for up to this point all her actions have not directly affected those around her. While Guren may be an anime-original character (correct me if wrong), his apparent closeness to Rose and probable death forces Rose to really consider her actions for the first time. Whether Guren died before or after the Bishop—it’s indicated Guren did beforehand—Rose quickly learned the Bishop’s assassination may have just aggravated the situation she intended to rectify. Gouldman and the Blue Knights have certainly wasted little time in accelerating their plans, between blocking off the Church sanctuary and directly confronting Sorey, while Rose—stuck now in maintaining external appearances—possesses little recourse in finding out what really happened to her friend. At least Dezel is around to deal with (i.e. kill) what Rose cannot, although why he sticks around her, for what purpose, and why Rose can actually see him remains yet to be revealed. There’s a reason Rose supposedly walls herself off to the other Seraphim after all.

No matter one’s complaints on Zestiria’s buildup though, at least next week looks to break that trend. Whatever the Blue Knights were up to appears to have gone out of control, and with Sergei now knowing of the Bishop’s assassination, it’s not long before some nasty secrets (besides Gouldman’s cover up) start leaking out. With the first true taste of Malevolence this season now greeting Sorey and friends, you can be sure next episode is all going to be about the action.

Random Tidbits

You’re damn rights you’re Edna’s bitch boy Mikleo, she doesn’t abbreviate just anyone’s name. Accept the Mibo, embrace the Mibo, it’s the way of life.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「INNOSENSE」 by FLOW

Preview

25 Comments

  1. https://randomc.net/image/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X%20-%2014%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
    How cute. This is where our dear Knight should pull out the wedding ring and say “I love you.”

    https://randomc.net/image/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X/Tales%20of%20Zestiria%20the%20X%20-%2014%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
    And, as usual, knights of the corrupted church are the enemies. No surprise there.

    Anyway, I don’t remember Guren, but he sounds like he rings a bell, I think. But that is just me, there where a lot of anime where the name “Guren” was REALLY common.

    L002
    Reply

    1. I think Guren was mentioned during the game on the first visit to Lastonbell when they needed to sneak past Sergie. Just a one-time name that you were never sure if he actually existed, never anything after that.

      Aex
      Reply

  2. Yeah, I first thought that Guren might be the old dude from last episode, but guess that’s not the case and he probably turned into a hellion, to be defeated by Rose.

    “and why Rose can actually see him remains yet to be revealed.”

    She can only hear his voice, I think? Which will probably change soon, I guess.

    To be honest, I prefered Alisha’s anime original politics story and want her back although you could argue that Rose as a grey not 100% good character is more interesting.

    boingman
    Reply

    1. Well, she can see Denzel, and was not afraid of him. She knows now he is also an Seraphim, and she are still afraid of the others. Perhaps she got used to Denzel.. But right now the Joke with her hearing the first time the Seraphim voice like in the game, is useless now

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

    3. Just based on the show it’s not clear if Rose can only hear Dezel, or actually see him too. Personally I’m guessing she can based on her body movements, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’m wrong 😛

      I’m also wanting Alisha to return to the story soon, if just for a different story to chew on. Nothing beats complex character development than having more than one character going through it.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  3. I like whoever Sergei is getting his advice from! XD

    He’s more of a secondary-main character, though, since in the game he sadly had close to as much screen-time as Alisha by the end… Glad to see they’re making him work for it in this version.

    And Mikleo belongs to Edna until she’s done with him. There is no escape.

    Aex
    Reply

  4. Long story short, almost all of this is original to the anime. The blue storm knights, Gouldman, even the bishop who got murdered. So instead, let me point out character traits that have been expanded upon that wasn’t in the game:

    -Rose is shown to be flawed and rash. Game Rose is also a killer but no one cares and is used more as a plot device
    -Sergei is heavily involved, when he was just a gag one-note character. No seriously, he gets more airtime, plot, and relevance in 2 episodes of Season 2 than the entire game.
    -The older guy of the sparrows? Also have more time in this episode than the entire game combined. The Sparrowfeathers as a whole are completely forgotten as a thing as soon as Rose joins the party in the game.

    This is all good, btw. Like, way better adaptation partly because the anime allows characters to move around without needing Sorey to be heavily involved for game’s sake.

    Rae
    Reply

    1. Thanks for the info, I didn’t know that much is actually anime-original. Like you mention though I’ll take it, the pacing, exposition, and additional explanations (if minor/superficial) have certainly latched me onto this show. I know lots of people didn’t like this episode because of its slowness for example, but all that anime original material on Roland’s political situation and Rose here intrigued the hell out of me.

      Pancakes
      Reply

    1. How did DEEN mess up KonoSuba? The show was a hit series in Japan. The first volume on Blu Ray sold well over 10k copies in just over a week. That’s actually better than the vast majority of shows released in 2016. It just shows how irrelevant your opinion is by claiming DEEN did a bad job, Japan certainly didn’t think so. And judging by the comments you see on here and elsewhere, most people outside of Japan loved KonoSuba too.

      Lyfe
      Reply

      2. It’s OK lol. By the way, in answer to your question, they released the first season of Zestiria X in a completed box set on Blu Ray. It didn’t sell that great, but then again for 35,000 yen I can’t imagine thousands of people buying it. Though I think the sales probably aren’t hugely important, Bandai Namco are probably at least part funding it. It’s great advertising for the Tales of series. And there’s like Zestiria merchandise everywhere.

        Lyfe
        Reply

    2. As Lyfe mentioned this adaptation likely isn’t about the sales as much as the publicity. The show creates attention in the game and merchandise, which alone are larger sources of revenue than the anime would ever be. It’s the reason the first season had that Berseria mini-arc halfway through; it was entirely for hyping up the game.

      Pancakes
      Reply

      1. Yep, that and two seasons almost certainly was the plan from the get go. I don’t think we’ll see more Zestiria after this season. The story that they plan on telling will be told by the end of this season and that will be that until they plan their next Tales anime based after whatever game Bandai Namco feels is worth putting in anime form.

        Lyfe
        Reply

      2. if there would be an 3rd Season, then it must be some child from the Shepard, or Rose or Alisha.

        Because the Shepard are not immortal, it is just the the Seraphim have an longer lifespan then Human.. it is no Secret that Leiha is older then Human life years. Because she knows the previous Shepard, and still locking “young”…and.. Edna.. She may be have the look as an Child, but its the same.. We can compare the lifespan of the Seraphim like Elves

        but, for Berseria.. she could life that long because she fusion with an “Seraphim” to break out

        Worldwidedepp
        Reply

      3. I honestly think there’s more chance of them doing something more with Berseria than there is of a third season happening. Or if they’re in no rush to do more Tales of anime, they could wait and see if the next Tales of game is successful and do something with that.

        Lyfe
        Reply

      6. Old? It only came out two years ago in Japan. Tales of the Abyss got an anime about 3 years after the game came on out the PS2(Which likely helped raise awareness of the series for the 3DS port). Zestiria X clearly helped promote Berseria too as it got some coverage before the game was even released.

        There’s an untitled Tales of game coming out on the Nintendo Switch too. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s a Zestiria port as Baba has mentioned that they’re creating a new engine for the next Tales of game and that it’ll be made for the PS4(Dropping support for the PS3).

        Lyfe
        Reply

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